


Choices

by JamesMcMullen



Category: Final Fantasy VI
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-01
Updated: 2012-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-31 22:40:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/349112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamesMcMullen/pseuds/JamesMcMullen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the death of his father, Edgar makes a choice that forever changes not only his life, but the lives of everyone he knows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choices

The moon hung bright and round as a new-minted coin in the desert sky as a young man paced along a sandstone parapet and stared out into the vast expanse of sand. He could have nearly anything he wanted, he knew; a word to the right people and any jewel in the world, any food, any song or story, even any woman, would be his. Anything, but what lay beyond that desert.

Out there was freedom. Oh, certainly not freedom from want, or hardships, or pain, or even death, but freedom nonetheless. Here, behind the ancient walls of the Castle – his Castle, he realized with a start – were impossible choices, crushing responsibilities, unavoidable duties, and painful memories.

His father was dead – poisoned by political rivals, or so the Chancellor had said – and the Kingdom would be thrown into turmoil once the news got out. The people needed someone to guide them, the Kingdom needed a shoulder to rest on, and a sword to guard it, and it was, after all, the duty of a King to be that guide, to be that comfort, to be that guardian. To be, in short, a father.

He had been at his father's deathbed, had heard the last words grated out by a thin, reedy voice that had been firm and strong only days before. A small, silver coin was passed from a trembling hand and along with it, a father's hope; it was to be the first of thousands. No royal seal behind a King's profile, just the faces of two brothers.

Thinking on it now, he couldn't help but laugh at the thought. Two Kings? His brother would never have agreed to it; the sheer impropriety of the idea would have repelled him. Still, his father had hoped for that, for something that could never be.

The would-be King looked at his hands. In one, a two headed dream of a different world, and in the other father's silver face, staring fearlessly into the future. Fists closing tight against the silver, he hurled a coin into the shifting sands and watched as it spiralled into the dunes below.

A scrape of leather on stone and the heavy oaken door lifted open as his brother climbed onto the parapet, his breath quickly becoming steam in the rapidly cooling air. 

A nod was shared between the two of them and they sighed in unison.

"Alright,” the oldest said, “Remember the rules; if it's heads, you get to go. If it's tails, I go. Whomever stays has to make sure that the kingdom stays together. Are...are you sure you want to do this?"  
His brother simply nodded and stared at the hand that held the coin.  
"Last chance, Mash, we could do this together, you know. Be co-Regents. Doma had-”  
“No, Edgar,” his brother said firmly. “Either you or I; only one of us should deal with this.”  
Edgar stared at his brother a moment, blinking back the tears in his eyes. “Well,” he said, his breath ragged, “here goes, then. No regrets."  
Sabin put a hand on his brother's shoulder and nodded. “No regrets, Ed."

The silver piece seemed to hang in the air, a man-made star in the heavens, its rotation reflecting moonlight onto the stone parapet. It began its descent, and a long-fingered hand snatched it from mid-air. There was a surprised gasp, and, a moment later, Sabin had disappeared down the stairwell.

Edgar watched the desert as his brother's chocobo raced across the sands. Neither had said a word to the other and, by morning, the tracks – the last reminders of what had happened this night – would be obliterated by the night's wind, and with them, a reminder of the freedoms he had given up. He moved to cast the coin into the dunes, to fully obliterate all the evidence of what had happened, but hesitated and, after a moment, pocketed the hard-edged silver before making his way downstairs.


End file.
